By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has disclosed that it was working with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to promote the use of alternative ports in the country.
It also noted that it was working on the construction of domestic export warehouses and common facility process centres for export commodities to enable the country to reap the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
The Chief Executive Officer of the council, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, made the remark at a webinar themed AfCFTA: Revamping Nigeria’s Infrastructure for Global Trade organised by Arbiterz Media Limited.
He explained the moves would ease the export processes in the country, noting that the projects and initiatives would be completed and ready for take-off in the next six months.
He further said that the agency has identified 22 priority products for export as part of its zero oil plan to boost the country’s foreign exchange (forex) earning capacity.
“We are working on domestic export warehouse/aggregation centres to reduce the cost of doing business by MSMEs exporting companies. We are looking at Tincan and Apapa Ports so that we can decongest those areas.
“We are also working on common facility process centres for many of our commodities including shea butter, cashew among others in order to reduce the cost of fashion, cosmetics and agro-products to mention a few.
“We are working with NPA on trying to get other ports ready and decongest the Lagos ports. Last month, we did about 7,000 tons of cocoa from Calabar Port, which has never been done before,” he said.
On her part, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Ms Yewande Sadiku, emphasised the importance of the internal work that Nigeria needs to do with ensuring that the private sector fully understands the implications of AfCFTA and that the government pro-actively empowers the private sector to leverage Nigeria’s clear competitive advantage for benefit.
Mrs Hope Yongo, who represented the MD/CEO of Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), said the lender was promoting the regional sealink project under an SPV-PPP framework, adding that the project would, hopefully, commence by the fourth quarter (Q4) 2021 to enhance Nigeria’s trade connectivity under AfCFTA.
Dipo Olowookere